Backgrounds: Werewolf
These Traits describe special advantages that are granted to a character by birth, opportunity, or circumstance. When choosing Backgrounds, make sure to flesh out the what, why, and how. What did you do that leads your Allies to trust you? Why did you inherit a fetish rather than someone else? How does your Pure Breed manifest? What relation are your Kinfolk? Backgrounds usually stand alone, though sometimes they're used in conjunction with an Attribute: Wits + Resources to keep the cash flowing in a recession, or Manipulation + Allies to convince your friend to accompany you on a life-threatening mission. Most Backgrounds improve as a result of the events in the story: making new contacts, discovering new parts of your pack's prophesized fate, or landing a significant financial windfall. As such, they cannot be raised with experience points. The Fate and Totem Backgrounds are the exceptions to this rule: the only way to increase them is through experience points. Some Backgrounds may be "pooled" among werewolves in a pack. Discouraged And Restricted Backgrounds Some tribes have restrictions on which Backgrounds a character can take at character creation. These restrictions fall into two categories: discouraged Backgrounds -- like Contacts and Resources for the Wendigo, or Mentor for the Glass Walkers -- and restricted Backgrounds, like Ancestors and Pure Breed for Glass Walkers, or the Silver Fangs' required purchase of three dots of Pure Breed. Usually, discouraged Backgrounds are social in nature and restricted Backgrounds are supernatural. Discouraged Backgrounds are essentially very rare: While most Bone Gnawers start with no Resources, anyone who buys a ticket can win the lottery. Discouraged Backgrounds can be purchased with freebie points at character creation, though the Storyteller is within rights to request that they not be purchased, cost double the amount of freebie points, or be limited to only a dot or two per character. Some groups may prefer to waive these restrictions entirely, or keep them in place on a tribe-by-tribe basis to fit their own take on the tribe -- if, in your chronicle, the Wendigo have less of an isolationist streak, it makes sense to remove their restrictions entirely, but the same group may still consider a rich Bone Gnawer to be an outlier. Restricted Backgrounds have a closer tie to the nature of a tribe -- a Bone Gnawer with Pure Breed, for instance, is going to be the focus of a lot of attention from the Garou Nation. (If none of his ancestors had it, where did it come from?) They are explicitly not attainable without Storyteller permission. That said, the Storyteller may allow characters to purchase restricted Backgrounds with freebie points (or a Silver Fang to start with fewer than three dots of Pure Breed), but only after talking it through with the players and making sure that everyone appreciates the impact such a choice will have. The story of the first Glass Walker to contact her Ancestors, or the first Bone Gnawer with Pure Breed is an excellent hook to hang a chronicle on. Pooling Backgrounds Some Backgrounds can relate to the pack, rather than the individual werewolves. Specifically, the members of a pack may choose to pool their individual Allies, Contacts, Fate, Kinfolk, and Resources. Totem as a Background already applies to the pack rather than an individual character, thus is not a candidate for pooling. A character can draw on a pooled Background even if that Background is normally restricted for her tribe. The Anchor The players should choose one Background as the anchor that links their characters' shared assets together. For example, the players of a pack of Glass Walkers might choose Resources, with the money and property placed in joint ownership to the pack explaining how the pack can access skilled people, connect to Kinfolk around the world, and even serve their destiny as a pack of moneyed werewolves. Any of the poolable Backgrounds can serve as an anchor: packs with grand Fates often find their destinies include other people and resources. No pooled Background can have more dots assigned to it than the Anchor Background does at any time. If that Background is damaged by events during play or in downtime, the other assets drift out of the pack's control, and it takes effort to win them back. Any character contributing to a pool may withdraw his stake at any time, but extracting personal assets from a pack causes some damage and bruises relationships: He gets back one less dot than he put in. Under normal circumstances, a pack can't change its Anchor Background, nor can it acquire a new one. While it may choose to abandon the assets represented by a given Background over the course of a chronicle, and thus free itself from the limitations of the backgrounds pooled to that Anchor, the fact that most Backgrounds can change value only as a result of the story's events means that the pack must acquire new Backgrounds in this manner. The only exception among pooled Backgrounds is Fate, and even then experience points should be used to improve it when discovering more about what the world has in store for the pack. While some werewolves want to pursue their personal goals, the majority pull together and act as a pack against any hardships. It can be hard for a pack to accept pooling their Backgrounds when they don't necessarily know or trust one another, but as time moves on, most packs see the utility in holding assets as a pack rather than an individual. It makes sense on a fundamental level -- the pack, not the werewolf, is the fundamental unit of Garou society. Using Pooled Backgrounds Pooled Backgrounds represent the pack's communal property. Anyone who contributes to any aspect of the pool has equal access to the full resources. Even a character who donates only one dot of Contacts still has equal access to all the Backgrounds in the pool. Not everyone can use the pool at the same time. A pool of seven Allies represents the same seven people. Who is available to help which members of the pack depends on circumstances and agreements among the pack. Drawing on a pack's Fate has certain limitations that go beyond this; see the Background's description for more information. Some packs may agree to place an individual access limit on shared Backgrounds, to reflect any agreements between the packmates, at the Storyteller's discretion. These arrangements are more common among young packs who do not yet trust one another. Upper Limits Packs can get Backgrounds that surpass the normal five-dot limit through pooling their points. This is normal, and reflects the many advantages of a pack working together -- a pack can keep in touch with more people, or maintain tighter control over a range of investments than one werewolf can. Pooled Backgrounds don't have any absolute upper limit, but things get outright bizarre if you aren't careful -- the world's 20 richest people aren't all members of the same pack. It's usually best if the Storyteller sets a 10-dot limit on the Anchor Background. Some Backgrounds work best if they scale differently in a pool to the individual scale, especially when they break through the normal five-dot limit. If an average pack of four players each adds one or two dots of Resources to end up with a shared pool of 6, the effect isn't that they're secret billionaires. Instead, they're of modest means, but it's damn near impossible to tear the pack's fiscal assets from them. As with all questions of balancing player expectations with elements of the story, the players and Storyteller should talk through the issue and set out some guidelines for what each shared Background represents before the chronicle begins. The Backgrounds Allies Allies are mortals who support and help you -- family, friends, or even organizations that are friendly to you. Some allies have useful skills -- doctors, hackers, and soldiers, for example -- while others have community influence, with contacts or resources they can use on your behalf. Although allies aid you willingly, without coaxing or coercion, they are not always available to offer assistance; they can only ignore so many of their own concerns for the sake of your relationship. Except in special circumstances, your allies don't usually know you are a werewolf (that knowledge would probably alter the relationship for the worse), but they may know that you have contacts and skills that most people don't, and they will come to you for favors. After all, friends help each other out, right? You've got a closer relationship with your allies than with contacts -- they're your friends, and they'll listen to you. Convincing your fishing buddy that a local refinery is spilling toxins into a major fishery can do wonders for your cause when he's an aide in the governor's office. Of course, just as your allies are more loyal and directly useful than your contacts, they can also require more in return. But you'd help your buddies out, right? You should work out who your allies are at the beginning of the game, as well as how you know them. Maybe they're old brothers-in-arms or friends from a local environmental society. Maybe (if your Allies rating is 5) you're an old hunting buddy of the governor. Allies may be pooled among a pack. A self-imposed isolation of the Nagah prevents them from having many Allies. It is rare for a Ratkin to have a high rating in this Background. Ancestors Prerequisites: Cannot be Ananasi, Ratkin, or Rokea. A Bastet cannot have this Background unless it is of the Swara Tribe or a hengeyokai Khan. Cannot be Mokolé; see the Mnesis Background. Ancestral memory in humans is no more than pseudo-scientific nonsense. To the Garou, who can contact the spirits of their ancestors, it's a fact of life. Many werewolves carry some of the memories of a distant ancestor; some even allow their forebears to take over their bodies. Once per game session, the player of a Garou with this Background may roll his Ancestors Background (difficulty 8, or 10 if he's trying to contact the spirit of a specific ancestor). Each success allows the character to increase any Ability by one for the purposes of a single dice pool, even if he has no dots in the Ability -- and he doesn't suffer the penalty for not having the Ability. For example, young Michel, a pure flatlander, must scale an immense cliff to come to the aid of his embattled pack. Michel has an Ancestors rating of 4 and Athletics 0. He calls on his forebears to guide him, and Michel's player rolls four dice at difficulty 8. He scores three successes. Michel contacts his great-great-great granduncle Cragtamer, who guides him over the sheer face and over the top. Now the player has an effective Athletics rating of 3 to make his climbing roll. If the Garou had an Athletics rating of 2, then his effective dice pool would be 5. All effects last for the rest of the scene. While it is more difficult to contact a specific ancestor, successful contact provides either useful advice or precognitive visions at the discretion of the Storyteller. Botching an Ancestors roll may indicate that the character becomes catatonic for the remainder of the scene as he's overwhelmed by the memories of thousands of lives. Alternatively, the ancestral spirit refuses to relinquish the body. How long the ancestor stays depends on the Storyteller. Contacts Contacts are the people you know from all walks of life. They're acquaintances, drinking buddies, or friends who don't mind letting you know what's going on, but wouldn't take a bullet for you. In addition to a general network of people who you can con or bully information from, you have a few major contacts -- people you trust to feed you accurate information in their area of expertise. You should come up with a name and a field for your major contacts, either at the start of play, or as you use them. You also have a number of minor contacts around the area. They are not quite as friendly or reliable in a pinch, but they work in a whole range of different areas and you can bribe, intimidate, or manipulate them into telling you what you need to know. To get in touch with a minor contact, make a roll using your Contacts rating (difficulty 7). Each success means that you have located one of your minor contacts. Because major contacts are closer to you (they're usually good friends), they are easier to find. Contacts may be pooled among a pack. Fate The Fate Background represents a prophecy that accompanied your birth or the creation of your pack. A Fate is always something significant, but it's as likely to be dark and infamous as it is to be full of glory. In these times of Apocalypse, the Garou cannot afford to sacrifice even one warrior, no matter how dark the portents surrounding them are. However, even those with terrible fates often prove to be some of the greatest Garou, perhaps because they try so hard to defy their fate. Some even succeed. In addition to the fame or infamy these prophecies garner you, once per game session you may use this Background to add successes to any roll that either failed or achieved fewer successes than were required. The player rolls his rating in this Background (difficulty 8) and adds any successes to those that were achieved in the original failed roll. If this means the action succeeds, the player should describe what fortuitous events caused him to succeed. If the Storyteller feels the player's actions run against what he is destined to do, she may choose to disallow the use of the background. When Fate is pooled among the pack, each member may call on this Background once per game session. If the action failed involves the entire pack in some way, then the player may draw on an amount of Fate up to the highest individual Fate in the pack. If the character is acting on her own, the player can only draw on an amount of Fate up to the lowest individual Fate in the pack (to a minimum of one). In a pack with pooled Fate, any character can raise her personal Fate with experience points, much like the Totem Background. However, she can only raise it up to the same level as the highest Fate in the pack -- if no member of the pack starts with more than three dots of Fate, no pack member can ever buy Fate up to four or five dots. Packs tend to garner prophecies of greater proportions than individuals. This is not only because of the greater weight a pack can swing compared to a single werewolf, but also because the Garou tend to see a pack's accomplishments as more legitimate than those of just one person. For RolePlaying purposes, consider the pack's Fate to be equal to that of the highest Fate rating in the pack. Fate may be pooled among a pack. Fetish You possess a fetish -- a physical object into which a werewolf has bound a spirit. The spirit grants a number of powers to a fetish, so they are very significant to the Garou. Such things are valuable, and other Garou (or other supernatural beings) may covet them. Kinfolk Kinfolk are otherwise normal humans and wolves who descended from Garou without inheriting their spiritual duty. Through this Background you are in contact with a number of Kinfolk. While Kinfolk are normal members of their species in most respects, they are immune to the Delirium, giving them the dubious advantage of looking upon a Crinos-form werewolf. They know that you are Garou, and they are willing to help you however they can, although most are not in positions of power (such people are considered Allies). Networks of Kinfolk are a valuable way for werewolves to deal with the human world without risking frenzy or discovery. Some Kinfolk may be related to you directly, while others are contacts you have made through your sept. Kinfolk may be pooled among a pack. Rokea may only have up to one dot in this Background, as they are spread across the world and rarely focused in one area. Mentor A Garou of higher Rank has taken keen interest in you, and will look after you -- to a point. The rating of your Mentor Background quantifies how powerful your mentor is within the tribe and what rank he or she has achieved. A mentor can teach you skills, advise you, or speak on your behalf at a council fire. He has a pack of his own, and his own duties, so he won't be present to save you whenever you bite off more than you can chew. Of course, your mentor will expect something in return for his assistance, be it good company, an occasional gofer, a champion, or perhaps a supporter in sept politics. His demands can make an excellent source of story hooks. In general, however, you will receive more than you give. Other werewolves may wonder what your mentor sees in you -- the two of you deal as individual werewolves, rather than as members of your respective packs. A powerful mentor doesn't have to be a single person; a pack or council of elders might be considered a collective mentor. The latter would almost certainly have a rating of four or five dots, even if no one on the council is above Rank 5. Corax rarely stick with any single Mentor for an appreciable length of time. This Background is very rare for Nagah to possess. Pack Status ( Rage Across The World 20th Anniversary Edition ) This is an optional Background meant to help give weight to a game focused around a pack finding their place within a sept. Pack status differs from Rank or Sept Standing. Unlike the various forms of personal status respected by the Garou nation, pack status is fluid, more like a kind of social currency than a hierarchy. Packs spend their status in a variety of ways to make their lives more comfortable or open up new opportunities for glory and advancement. Pack status functions as a Pooled Background. Pack status is not formal. When the sept is pleased with a pack, everyone is happy to do them favors and lend them resources. As members of the pack justifies its withdrawal from the sept's stores by basking in their own glory, they eventually wear out their welcome and have to perform more great deeds in order to regain the social currency that they have spent. Pack status is used in the same way as the Resources background. The chart below details how packs can spend their status to acquire various benefits. If a pack performs some extraordinary service for the sept, the Storyteller might decide that it's appropriate to reward the pack with a dot or two of extra status that last until the pack uses it, or until the end of the story. As a general rule, any heroic deed that's worth Renown could be worth half its highest Renown reward (round down) as dots of temporary pack status. Packs do not gain additional pack status for taking on sept duties, even though they can gain Renown for taking on sept duties. If a pack has taken on sept duties, that should be reflected with the Sept Status Background, since it is less a one-time boost and more a reliable source of goodwill. It's important to remember that many of these "rewards" are still available to packs that don't have the Pack Status to pay for them, especially if the pack needs them to perform a duty for the sept. Only the most poorly run or dysfunctional sept would ask a pack to dig a ditch and then fail to lend them a shovel! The difference is in how hard it is for the pack to get its hands on sept resources. When a pack purchases a reward with pack status, the items, training, or favors are given freely by a sept that already views itself as in the pack's debt. When a pack has to beg and borrow resources, they often find themselves having to perform favors for more influential Garou, or even kinfolk. Secondly, the Garou have more respect for packs who contribute to the sept without drawing on its resources. Nearly anyone can defend a sept with the community's most powerful fetish; only a real hero can do so on his own, with the treasures that already belong to him. Anything that a pack acquires with Pack Status counts as something that belongs to the pack. In other words, if a pack achieves something by begging the shaman to lend them her powerful spirit guide for an Umbral journey, it counts for less than it would if they had done without any help, or if they had acquired the spirit guide by reminding the shaman of what she and the sept already owed them. Most importantly, while any sept will loan its packs resources when they are on sept business, getting ahold of sept resources for personal matters is something else entirely. Anyone can borrow a van to bury some freshly killed Pentex executives -- only a respected member of the community can borrow it to move house. Most Garou don't view using sept resources to pursue individual agendas as inappropriate or corrupt thanks to their "survival of the fittest" culture -- to a point -- but they are also clear that this is a "withdrawal" from an individual's social account with the sept, and needs to be paid for, before or after. Pure Breed Prerequisites: Cannot be Ananasi, Corax, Kitsune, Ratkin, or Rokea. Garou take great stock in ancestry, and the werewolf who is descended from renowned forbears has a definite advantage in Garou society. This Background represents your lineage, markings, bearing and other features of birth. Other Garou revere werewolves with high ranks in Pure Breed as heroes of yore come to life -- and such werewolves are expected to act the part. The higher your Pure Breed score is, the more likely you are to impress elder councils or receive hospitality from foreign tribes. Each point of Pure Breed adds an extra die to formal challenges (such as Rank challenges) and to Social rolls involving other Garou (even Ronin or Black Spiral Dancers). Pure Breed is a nebulous combination of bloodline and spiritual inheritance. A character with high Pure Breed looks and carries himself like an archetypal member of his tribe -- however, if he does not join that tribe, any benefits of Pure Breed are removed by the tribe's totem. Many werewolves with Pure Breed can trace their ancestry directly, while others resemble distant ancestors who cannot be connected without a degree of genealogical exactitude that is lost to the Garou. Some tribes place more value on good breeding than others, but Pure Breed is almost universally respected. It's a mystical trait, and werewolves can tell instinctively whose blood is particularly pure. Of course, Garou expect those of pure blood to live up to the standards set by their noble ancestors. They frown on those who can't or won't accept the challenge. This background is rare for the Ajaba. Resources The Resources Background describes your character's access to and control over a range of valuable assets. These assets may be actual cash, but as this Background increases, they're more likely to be investments, property, or earning capital such as stocks and bonds. A character's Resources depend upon the standard of living she's comfortable with -- a lupus in the Yukon isn't likely to get a wire transfer from her broker each month. A character with no dots in Resources can have enough clothing and supplies to get by, or she may be homeless, sleeping in a den in her lupus form. You receive a basic allowance each month based on your rating, so make sure to detail where this money comes from. The Storyteller will determine how much this is based on the area your game takes part in and the cultures you're in contact with. A werewolf's fortune can run out if she's fighting in the Amazon rather than managing her stock portfolio. You can also sell your less liquid resources if you need the cash, but this can take weeks or even months, depending on what exactly you're trying to sell. Art buyers don't just pop out of the woodwork, after all. Resources can be pooled among a pack. It is rare for a Gurahl or Ratkin to have a high rating in this Background. Rites Rituals are an important part of life. This Trait denotes how many rites the character knows at the beginning of the game. The rating represents levels of rites, so a character with four dots in this Background may have a Level Four rite, one Level One and one Level Three rites or any other combination. Remember that to learn a rite the character needs a Rituals Knowledge rating at least equal to the level of a given rite. While Rank is not necessarily a factor, many Theurges would need a pretty convincing reason to teach a Level Five rite to a Rank 1 Garou. Note that two minor rites can be purchased in place of one Level One rite. Sept Standing ( Rage Across The World 20th Anniversary Edition ) This is an optional Background meant to help give weight to a game focused around a pack finding their place within a sept. You are accorded a greater degree of respect within your sept for one reason or another. You might perform some valuable function for the sept, come from an important or influential lineage, or your deeds might speak for themselves. Either way, you can count on your sept's support. Kinfolk characters can normally purchase up to two dots of Sept Standing, granting them some duties in the sept. A character with an unusually high Sept Standing might have been tutored by a famous Garou or come from a well-known family -- or perhaps she was thrust into an unusually advanced position when her elders and betters were killed. On the other hand, a character with unusually low Sept Standing for his Rank might be a newcomer, or grappling with a bad reputation, deserved or not. A character's Sept Standing has two facets. The first is the degree to which his sept respects him and the second is a character's position within the sept -- his job in Garou society. Each position in a sept has a Sept Standing requirement (see below). A character must possess that many dots in Sept Standing to reap the rewards of the position. Any additional dots of Sept Standing grant one extra die per dot to social rolls when dealing with septmates, including Kinfolk. Garou crave hierarchy, but they are also creatures of action. There's a limit to how far you can get by relying on how much people like you. The total bonus from social Backgrounds and Merits cannot exceed five dice; any additional dice can only cancel out penalties. Spirit Heritage The Garou are creatures of duality -- torn between man and wolf, and between flesh and spirit. The Garou share a kinship with inhabitants of the spirit world, but some have a stronger connection than others. For some reason, perhaps an ancestral tie to a household of spirits, certain types of spirits react more positively to you than others. This doesn't need to be a friendly relationship -- spirits may be fearful and respectful of you, in awe of you, or feel a sense of duty to you. No matter what the relationship, one group of spirits is more likely to cooperate with you. When you select this background, choose one type of spirit. Examples of possible groups are animal spirits, plant spirits, elementals, urban spirits, and even Banes. When dealing with spirits of this type, the player may add his Spirit Heritage rating to any Social rolls, or rolls involved in challenges. Spirits whom you are attuned to view you, to some degree, as one of their own -- a daunting prospect for those attuned to Banes, when other Garou discover their heritage. If you act against such spirits or ignore their plights, you may be seen as betraying them. Totem Prerequisites: Cannot be Nagah. Totem is a Background that applies directly to the character's pack, rather than the individual. Unlike other pooled Backgrounds, the pack spends all of the points that members have invested in this Trait to determine their totem's power. Each totem has a Background cost rating; the pack must spend that amount to ally with that totem. Some totems are willing to lend great powers to their adherents; their point costs are correspondingly greater. In addition to their Totem bonuses, all beginning totems have a base of eight points to divide among Rage, Willpower, and Gnosis. The totem also begins with the Airt Sense and Re-form Charms. Apart from bestowing power, totems start out somewhat aloof from the pack, and they have little influence among spirits, unless the players buy a closer connection with Background points. With time, RolePlaying, and experience points, pack totems can grow in power as their pack grows in Rank and influence. Some totems can even become the totems of whole septs or -- in legendary circumstances -- even tribes. Most of the powers that totems bestow are available to only one pack member at a time. At the end of each turn, the Garou with the power declares who the power may be given to next turn (assuming that she doesn't keep it). After spending the initial cost of the totem, the players can spend any remaining Background points to add to the totem's strength and abilities. The listed cost is in Background points, which can be bought through experience at the rate of two experience points per Background point. (Therefore, three points of Rage would cost two experience points.) The Storyteller should allow increases in totem powers only when it fits in to the story, such as when pack members gain a higher rank, a new member joins the pack, or when pack members gain new insight into the nature of their totem. When the totem is affiliated with a more powerful spirit, the greater spirit might grant the strengthening of its servant (pack totem) in return for a great service done it by the pack. Some werewolves seek out a personal totem, pledging themselves to service of their totem above all others. This is certainly possible, though not common among the Garou -- to take a personal totem indicates that a werewolf values his relationship with the spirit as greater than the relationship he could get with a pack. An individual werewolf can have a personal totem by taking the Totem Background at a level enough to pay the cost of the totem. The character can have more than five dots in Totem at character creation (through spending freebie points) to achieve this. If she increases her Totem Background with experience points, her personal totem increases in power as noted above. Taking a personal totem has downsides. If the character joins another pack, he doesn't get any benefits of that pack's totem unless he relinquishes his connection to his personal totem. Until then, he's never really part of the pack in a way that the other members are: Any Gifts or rites that affect the pack do not include the character, and he cannot be a part of any pack tactics. For many werewolves who take a personal totem, that doesn't matter -- whether eking out a solitary existence on the streets or teaming up with other denizens of the World of Darkness, a personal totem allows them to feel a little bit more like part of a pack. See the Fera-Specific Backgrounds for fera totem information.